Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in 2019 as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases later confirmed to be the COVID-19 disease (World Health Organization (WHO) 2020a). A novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 is similar to other human and animal viral pathogens including some of those which cause the common cold and is most similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS/ SARS-CoV-1). The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread to many countries and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020 (World Health Organization (WHO) 2020b) The individuals most at-risk of infection are those in close contact with patients with COVID-19 which includes health and aged care staff. Governments, employers, local, national, and global health and aged care agencies and organisations including those that represent and advocate for health and aged care workers, such as international and national nursing associations, recommend and provide guidance regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), both directly related to the current COVID-19 pandemic and more broadly around infection prevention and control. A lack of consistency regarding PPE policy and recommendations has been discussed recently by Chughtai and colleagues in an editorial which focussed particularly upon differences in the recommended type/level of PPE, policies on extended use and reuse, and the importance of respiratory protection programs (Chughtai et al., 2020). In this paper, we focus more specifically on recommended processes for the use of PPE, particularly donning and doffing practices; and discuss the issue of inconsistent recommendations and messaging leading to confusion, concern, avoidable errors, and most seriously, increased risk of contamination and infection for both health and aged care staff, as well as patients and community members.
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